The other half…

Hi All! So I suppose I should begin by introducing myself.

curtsey!

I have been the silent travel partner up until this point of the trip. Today I decided it was time to add my two cents before people begin to wonder if James has just been carrying around cardboard cut outs of a girl who seems ecstatic to be living out of the back of an old truck.

Wine, My best friend

Well, I am in fact ecstatic about embarking on this crazy adventure and even though the trip is only in its infancy I can already feel my attitude and mindset beginning to change.

The first mental hurdle was before the trip even began. It all started with the downsizing of stuff. I have to admit that I never thought of myself as materialistic, but during our intense “life cleanse” (as I like to call it) I realized just how hard it is to truly not attach yourself to stuff. I found myself getting all worked up over a pair of shoes the way the people on that show “Hoarders” do when they have to get rid of an old pizza box. I had to keep reminding myself that it really is just stuff. A couch is just a couch, a tv is just a tv and that new fancy iPhone that you just bought is just another item of unimportance in the grand scheme of life.

After letting go of all of this useless crap I cannot begin to tell you how free I felt. I was free from the anchors of life. I was free to focus on what life is all about. Experiences. I know that when I am on my death bed I will not be thinking about how much money I had, or how much stuff I bought. I will be thinking about how many amazing experiences I have had and the wonderful people I have met along the way.

Sundown in Punta Chivato, Baja, MX

Fellow traveling friends

All of that being said, I started talking to some friends and almost all of them told me that they would love to do what we are doing but have no idea where to start. It really does seem to be an overwhelming concept at first, but I will tell you now that ANYONE can do this. James and I are not special in any way. We are not trust fund babies, nor are we crazy bums who intend on living off of grass clippings and Gatorade. We are just two working stiffs who had a dream that is now in the process of becoming a reality. My ultimate goal for this trip is to help just one person live the life that they have imagined. If you can commit to living in small spaces and truly have the desire to downsize your life than I am here to help! I will be sharing tips on traveling for free/cheap, the budget from month to month, and other random factoids that we pick up along the way. Please feel free to ask any questions that you have and I will be more than happy to help. Cheers!

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Cannonball Run-Colorado to Florida

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching we had to step our game up. No more dilly dallying! We still have a few obligations to our parental units to uphold and one of them was Thanksgiving dinner in Florida. Unfortunately this means we had to pick up the pace from Colorado to Florida in order to hit our deadline. We missed a lot of great stuff and look forward to coming back someday to revisit lots of sites along the way. Luckily we had lots of friends along the way to stop in and crash for the night. Less camping shots on this post.

Heading out from Moab towards Colorado. We stopped off in Beaver Creek, CO to visit an old friend. Tommy is one of my dads best friends and basically an uncle to me and my brothers. It was great catching up with him and nice to get out of the cold for a bit. Tommy is a wild man, loves deep-sea diving, heli-skiing, dragracing, and basically raising hell. When I was younger he gave me my first job, let me get away with all my shenanigans, and was there to kick my ass when I needed it. A good guy indeed.

Beaver Creek, Nice little ski town. Still needs more snow to get pumping.

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Exploring the Colorado Plateau… Red Rock Country

Wow! We had a great response to our first post. I am glad you guys are enjoying our adventure. I know in our last post we said that the Sierras and Death Valley is some of the majestic scenery in all of the U.S. I think I need to keep my mouth shut because the past 7 days of traveling the “4 Corners” area of the U.S. has been AMAZING.

The Colorado Plateau is a geographic region of the U.S which covers over 130,000 sq miles of land shared between Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. This area has the greatest concentration of National Parks in the U.S and it is easy to see why. Developed over billions of years and uplifted and modified by faults and receding oceans this area is chock full of geological, ecological, and historical splendor. We had a blast.

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The adventure begins!

November 1st came and went, we were antsy to get going but the world had other plans. Luckily we only ended up two days behind “schedule”, which I am now declaring as a dirty word. Schedules are for people who have someplace to be.

Darren and Marc at Any7 got the truck all finished up, they did a great job putting our ideas for the truck into action. We picked it up and headed home to cram all worldly possessions into the back.

Thanks guys!
any7

Once we got home the actual packing process only took about 30 minutes. Impressive! We bid our landlords and our cabin farewell and headed out the door. It was too late to actually make it anywhere and the truck was too full of crap to camp in the back. Darren let us crash on his couch for the night, the first of many couch surfing experience to come I am sure.

Re-arranged the back of the truck in the morning and hit the road. Our destination for the night was the Sierra mountains.

Excitedly we headed off into the rolling foothills of the Sierras.
foothills 2

The clouds looming overhead did not look very inviting, and as we approached the mountain range we saw signs stating the most of the mountain passes were closed. I thought this was odd since I was just up here last weekend and there wasn’t any snow on the ground. Cranked up the weather report on the radio…

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY – SNOW STORM APPROACHING EASTERN SIERRAS AT 730PM – 8 INCHES OF SNOW AND 75 MPH WINDS EXPECTED AT 8000FT.

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